Last Letter of Second Lieutenant Matao Nara to His Parents
On June 22, 1945, Second Lieutenant Matao Nara took
off from Miyakonojō East Airfield as a member of the 27th Shinbu Special Attack
Squadron and died in a special (suicide) attack west of Okinawa at the age of
25. He piloted an Army Hayate Type 4 Fighter (Allied code name of Frank).
After his death in a special attack, he received a promotion to Captain. He was
from Akita Prefecture, graduated from Akita Mining College in 1942, and was a member of the
7th Class of the Army's Officer Cadet (Kanbu Kōhosei) training program.
He wrote the following final letter to his parents:
In this war situation that faces the country, going as a Special Attack
Corps member is a young man's long-cherished desire.
Father, Mother, thank you for many things.
Well then, I will go.
Letter translated by Bill Gordon
July 2018
The letter comes from Terai (1977, 107). The biographical information in
the first paragraph comes from Chiran Tokkō
Irei Kenshō Kai (2005, 159) and Osuo (2005, 196).
Sources Cited
Chiran Tokkō Irei Kenshō Kai (Chiran Special Attack
Memorial Society), ed. 2005. Konpaku no kiroku: Kyū rikugun tokubetsu
kōgekitai chiran kichi (Record of departed spirits: Former Army Special
Attack Corps Chiran Base). Revised edition, originally published in 2004. Chiran Town, Kagoshima
Prefecture: Chiran Tokkō Irei Kenshō Kai.
Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (rikugun hen)
(Record of special attack corps (Army)). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
Terai, Shun'ichi, ed. 1977. Kōkū Kichi Miyakonojō Hayate
Tokkō Shinbutai (Miyakonojō Air Base Hayate Special Attack Shinbu Unit).
Tōkyō: Genshobō.
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